Building tourism into a spearhead economic sector of the country

Continuing the working program, on the morning of September 19, the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed and gave opinions on the draft Law on Tourism (amended).

Through discussion, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed on the necessity of amending the Law on Tourism to continue institutionalizing the Party's guidelines on tourism development; concretizing the spirit and content of the 2013 Constitution; internalizing relevant international treaties that Vietnam has signed or joined; overcoming limitations and shortcomings in practical implementation as a basis for promoting rapid and sustainable tourism development.

The Law on Tourism (amended) must affirm the role of tourism as a comprehensive economic sector with high social significance; develop both international and domestic tourism with focus and key points; clearly define the responsibilities of central agencies and local authorities at all levels.

Opinions say that the Party and the State have a policy to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector. This policy requires the tourism industry in the coming time to have strong development in both scale and quality. To ensure that, it is necessary to build an open legal corridor, create motivation and a favorable environment to promote tourism development.

Foreign tourists visit SaPa. (Photo: Thanh Ha/VNA)

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu assessed that the draft Law amending and supplementing 56 articles, stipulating 21 new articles and keeping 2 articles unchanged compared to the current Law on Tourism is a major amendment. However, the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly is concerned because these amended contents have met the requirements of building tourism into a spearhead economic sector, and are they commensurate with the potential and advantages of the general economic sector?

Assessing that the country's tourism is not commensurate with the country's potential and advantages, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan pointed out that Vietnam's sea and forests are not inferior to any other country, but foreign tourists rarely come to Vietnam or come once and then leave. The revised law must solve the problem after the revised law is issued, attracting more tourists to come and return to the country.

The National Assembly Chairman emphasized that it is necessary to promote the country's tourism through culture, and that tourism development cannot be separated from culture to be successful.

On the basis of agreement with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 5 of the Draft Law: "The State has mechanisms and policies to mobilize all resources and increase investment in tourism development to ensure that tourism is the country's spearhead economic sector" to affirm the important position and role of tourism as a spearhead economic sector according to the Party's consistent policies and guidelines.

However, many opinions assess that the tourism development policy stipulated in Article 5 is still general and has not been concretized into regulations in specific provisions of the Law; at the same time, the Draft Law has not yet proposed specific, breakthrough policies to ensure that tourism develops into a spearhead economic sector. The drafting committee needs to review relevant legal regulations on investment incentives (according to the 2014 Investment Law); at the same time, study in detail tourism development policies, mobilize resources, support tourism development; integrate tourism development into strategies, planning, and socio-economic development plans to exploit tourism potential.

Citing the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress in 2016, it stated: “There is a policy to develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector. Encourage economic sectors to invest in tourism development with a synchronous and modern infrastructure system, diverse products and high professionalism. Create all favorable conditions for entry and exit procedures, travel and ensure safety and security. Step up promotion, advertising and building the Vietnamese tourism brand. Effectively and sustainably exploit cultural and natural heritages, historical relics, scenic spots and preserve environmental hygiene. Develop complex, large-scale and high-quality tourism service areas,” the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly assessed that regulations on policy mechanisms and ensuring feasibility in implementation need to be further strengthened.

Citing Article 5 of the draft, which lists up to 8 clauses on "tourism development policies", but looking back at the following chapters, Vice President Uong Chu Luu found that these were general regulations, not clearly stating policies such as encouraging investment, building tourism training facilities...

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly suggested that the Drafting Committee must review the current legal system, clearly see what is unreasonable in the current regulations, and any content that is not yet available must be stipulated in the draft law...

According to Vietnamplus